Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Exploring the temporal lag
between the structure and
function of urban areas
Victor Mesev
Urban areas are complex assemblages of tangible physical structures and human behavioral functionality. Remote
sensing is routinely employed to measure land cover types (structures) from increasingly finer spatial resolutions,
while census and planning data infer land use (function). Traditionally, the relationship is assumed linear, but
classic urban theory suggests that city dynamics contain a temporal lag between structure and function; in other
words, a gap of time between when decisions are made to change a city by its population to when those changes
actually physically materialize. This chapter explores this so-called temporal lag from a conceptual standpoint,
especially in relation to urban theory, as well as outlining structural-functional links that may empirically
determine the scope and rate of the lag. It also deliberates the search for an appropriate scale of analysis for using
remote sensing in urban studies; discussing the continuum between micro and macro urban remote sensing. The
chapter ends with calls for developing a research agenda that aims to measure temporal lags more precisely, along
with a need to build urban remote sensing methodologies that appreciate the dynamic nature of cities by carefully
linking process to both structure and function simultaneously.
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